Raj watched as the crowd surged toward the cliff's edge.
His eyes lit up as he suddenly realized a way to farm Points...
As the group of ninja raced down the cliff, Raj swiftly leaped off Rin's shoulder and joined the crowd.
"Hey? Raj, wait up~"
"Awoo! My youth! My blood is boiling! Obito, charge ahead!"
"..."
Guy dragged Obito along at a frantic pace, pulling him from the back of the group to a slightly more forward position.
Rin struggled to keep up, barely managing to catch up.
Raj paused briefly.
Partly to wait for Rin, but also...
To let the "sheep" go first.
One by one, the ninja sheep descended the sheer cliff face.
For them, this near-vertical drop was as easy as climbing a tree-a skill practically every ninja mastered.
Raj lingered at the cliff's edge, gathering its momentum.
Just as Rin was about to reach it, Raj plunged downward.
Unlike the other ninja, its descent followed a diagonal, "slanted one" path.
Even more bizarrely, as it sprinted, a stream of liquid shot out from beneath it.
"Is it raining?"
"Bullshit rain! Who the hell is pissing everywhere?"
"So rude! If you're afraid of heights, don't take the exam and endanger others!"
The group erupted in curses, with those closest to Raj at the top of the cliff shouting the loudest, as they were the most affected.
But their anger quickly shifted when they spotted a cat darting past them from ahead.
Then, the people below began to curse as well.
"Do you have any decency up there? If you've got the guts, fight properly instead of resorting to such dirty tricks!"
The next second, a barrage of shuriken flew up from below.
The ninjas who had entered later were initially stunned, but their anger quickly flared.
They were victims too - why were they being yelled at? Fight?
Who's afraid? Let's fight!
And so, the cliff face erupted into chaos, the battle intensifying until nearly the entire wall was covered in fighting ninjas.
Of course, not everyone had been drenched in Raj's urine.
Skilled fighters naturally avoided it, and the Amegakure ninjas, each equipped with an umbrella, had no trouble either.
But as the battle escalated, the urine became the least of their concerns.
The Supervisors on the summit watched in stunned silence, unsure how to react.
After a moment, two figures appeared on the scene.
One was Ebizo, and the other was Orochimaru, Konoha's highest-ranking official in the area.
"Lord Orochimaru, should we intervene?"
"Hmph, why would we? The cliff face is part of the examination grounds, isn't it?"
Orochimaru chuckled darkly, his eyes gleaming with sinister amusement.
He hadn't expected Raj to deliver such a spectacular surprise right at the start of the second stage.
Truly... unexpected.
"Meow!" Raj yowled.
Behind him trailed a mob of ninjas eager to beat him up.
Many were from Sunagakure, but most hailed from smaller villages like Kusagakure and Takigakure.
Konoha ninjas were conspicuously absent.
'Don't bite the hand that feeds you. I'm a cat with principles... Ahem, more importantly...'
If a fight broke out, he needed allies.
Antagonizing everyone would make him a target for all.
As a lone cat, he couldn't possibly handle so many ninjas.
"The Little Black Cat's in danger! We have to..."
"Wait, let's find Rin first. She can resolve this completely," Obito said.
Guy tried to intervene, but Obito immediately restrained him.
Having provoked the wrath of the entire crowd, any attempt to block their path would be suicidal.
Though Obito wanted to retaliate against Raj, he couldn't afford to be careless when he saw it in mortal danger.
He immediately turned back to find Rin, but the mountain walls were swarming with people, and chaotic battles raged everywhere.
'How could he find her in such a mess?'
Raj remained completely calm.
So what if there were many enemies?
They couldn't match his speed.
Numbers meant nothing.
As he fled, he even had the leisure to check his points, feeling utterly at ease.
His points were skyrocketing.
In a short time, these ninja sheep had contributed nearly five thousand points - a veritable windfall.
If not for the need to avoid provoking certain dangerous ninja and his reliance on Konoha's shinobi, his gains could have quadrupled.
But points weren't his only motivation.
Points were valuable, but life was priceless.
Sometimes, however, circumstances forced one to abandon certain things.
Like now.
With a red-haired Sasori watching, could he survive by hiding?
Clearly not.
Sasori killed without regard for status or position, acting solely on whim.
He was a sane madman; otherwise, he wouldn't have turned his own Third Kazekage into a Human Puppet.
By creating such a commotion and drawing so many enemies, Raj ensured that his Konoha allies would pay closer attention, significantly increasing his chances of survival.
Sasori didn't overthink things.
At that moment, he only noticed that Raj was avoiding many people.
What concerned him most wasn't who he was avoiding, but rather...
'How can this cat maintain such stamina?'
Sasori was deeply curious, his eyes filled with puzzlement.
Did cats have no limits?
They were fast, explosive, and now this?
'If that's the case... I'm quitting being human!'
However, seeing the pursuers, he couldn't help but frown.
With so many people following, it would be difficult to strike.
Besides, this cat was ridiculously fast.
Though Sasori's Puppet Technique was formidable, his physical speed couldn't match it.
'Never mind. I'll find another opportunity later.'
Sasori glanced down, then leaped off the cliff.
Mid-air, he summoned a bizarrely shaped puppet, using it to counteract his descent.
Soon, he vanished into the jungle.
The Sunagakure ninja, witnessing this, abandoned their pursuit.
They decisively used Body Replacement Technique to disengage from the battle and retreated down the mountain.
To truly succeed, they needed to gather intelligence; brute force alone wouldn't suffice.
Meanwhile, the Amegakure ninja followed suit, leaping off the cliff face and casually opening their umbrellas...
On the cliff, most of the combatants had disengaged.
Those still "fighting" were either clones or genuine knuckleheads, like the dozen or so fools relentlessly chasing Raj.
Most of these fools were children aged twelve or thirteen, brimming with youthful arrogance.
Seeing them, Raj couldn't help but think of his old friend Asuma.
'Kids are the easiest to bully. Their youthful arrogance makes them contribute more points than many seasoned Chunin veterans!'
"You're the dumbest ones! Everyone else left, meow~"
Raj was infuriatingly smug, even though it was the one causing all the trouble...
The children were beyond furious.
As ninja from small villages, they had little chance of qualifying for the Chunin Exams anyway, so they decided to abandon the test altogether.
"Let's kill this cat first!"
"Exactly! We're just going through the motions anyway. Let's vent our anger before worrying about the exam."
"Everyone, team up..."